


Your Duty to My Heart

by DetectiveRiley (RavenWhitecastle)



Series: The Sinner and the Saint [38]
Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mentions of violence/character death but it's pretty vague, Plans For The Future, Plans of self-sacrifice, Post Samaritan, Sacrifice, Self-sacrifice mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-05
Updated: 2020-02-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:48:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22565800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RavenWhitecastle/pseuds/DetectiveRiley
Summary: The war grows more bleak with each passing day, and John can't help but wonder if he'll live to see the end of it. Harold refuses to let him go alone.
Relationships: Harold Finch/John Reese
Series: The Sinner and the Saint [38]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/940422
Comments: 7
Kudos: 18





	Your Duty to My Heart

The war against Samaritan looked more and more bleak with each passing day. Each time Harold checked the simulations, Samaritan’s code was another billion points ahead of the Machine’s. Root was getting run down from switching identities so often, and Sameen wasn’t getting anywhere hunting down and interrogating Samaritan operatives. They were all safe, for the time being, but caution and cabin fever were taking a toll on them all.

They were sitting around waiting for some intel when John brought it up. “Do you think everyone will stick around?” he asked, “At the end of all this?”

Harold turned in his chair to look at John sitting to his right. “I never really gave it much thought.”

“Root and Shaw have a good thing going,” John observed. 

“Yes, I suppose they do.” Harold glanced towards the room where the pair and Bear were catching some much needed shut-eye. “I’m not sure it’s within Miss Groves or Miss Shaw’s capacity to walk away, but I think it might be good for them to get away from it all. Shack up and settle down, or at least start an operation of their own.”

John felt a pang in his chest. Swallowing, he nodded. “Yeah, that’s a good answer.” He looked down at his hands. “The boys in my unit always talked about coming home and starting families. They were young. Green.”

Harold studied his partner. “What about you?” he asked. 

John shrugged. “I always thought I’d die in a war. Maybe overseas, or in the war on terror, or something.” He smirked. “This isn’t exactly what I had in mind.” His attempt at a joke fell flat.

“Don’t say that.”

John looked up to see Harold watching him with shining eyes. “What?”

Harold clenched his jaw. “I know that things seem bleak, but Miss Groves reminded me… well, the Machine, but Miss Groves told me… even when it seems like all is lost, there’s always still hope in Pandora’s box.”

John shot Harold that infuriating, playful grin. “Did I say I was giving up?”

“Not exactly.” John’s smile faded, and Harold sighed. “You talk as if we’re not going to survive this.”

John’s lips parted. “Harold… there’s no guarantee that we are.”

“But there’s no guarantee that we won’t!” Harold paused, shaking his head. “I’m sorry… that was childish. But either way, you talk like you’re going to have to martyr yourself for the cause.” John didn’t say anything. “Good god,” Harold breathed, “Did you really think you would need to sacrifice yourself for this?”

Pursing his lips, John lifted one shoulder. “There’s still a possibility we might have to. We barely got out of the stock exchange alive, and that was-”

Harold cleared his throat and cut him off. “Let me rephrase that. Did you really think that I would ever  _ let _ you sacrifice yourself?” John looked away. Harold stood up and limped over to John to crouch in front of him, with some difficulty. He looked up at John with imploring eyes. “I’ve been thinking about what you said,” Harold murmured, “About stopping. And I thought that after all of… this… was over, we might think about moving on.”

“Shacking up and settling down?” John suggested, lip twitching.

Harold huffed. “Don’t cheapen the moment. The point is… if you think that you can just walk into the fires of Hell without me… you are gravely mistaken. You might feel like you have this grand duty to save the world, but… you have an even greater duty. To my heart.”

John’s eyes were watering. He forced a chuckle and said, “You’re lucky Shaw didn’t hear you say that.”


End file.
